Non-Mulberry and Mulberry Silk Protein Sericins as Potential Media Supplement for Animal Cell Culture.

Neety Sahu,Joydip Kundu,N Ibotambi Singh,Subhas C Kundu,Sunaina Sapru,Shilpa Pal,Sarmistha Talukdar,Juming Yao

doi:10.1155/2016/7461041

Abstract

Silk protein sericins, in the recent years, find application in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals and as biomaterials. We investigate the potential of sericin, extracted from both mulberry Bombyx mori and different non-mulberry sources, namely, tropical tasar, Antheraea mylitta; muga, Antheraea assama; and eri, Samia ricini, as growth supplement in serum-free culture medium. Sericin supplemented media containing different concentrations of sericins from the different species are examined for attachment, growth, proliferation, and morphology of fibrosarcoma cells. The optimum sericin supplementation seems to vary with the source of sericins. The results indicate that all the sericins promote the growth of L929 cells in serum-free culture media; however, S. ricini sericin seems to promote better growth of cells amongst other non-mulberry sericins.

Highlights

Silk protein sericin is a water soluble glycoprotein that shields the fibroin fibres present in the cocoon
In a departure from similar studies that report the use of B. mori sericin as a serum substitute in the growth of fibroblast cells [36, 49], our study shows that the low concentrations of both mulberry and non-mulberry sericin supplemented media can be used as supplements to serum-free media
Sericins from mulberry and different non-mulberry species usually depict that more stable β-sheets conformation is solution, which adds to its integrity in aqueous media

Summary

Introduction

Silk protein sericin (glue protein) is a water soluble glycoprotein that shields the fibroin fibres present in the cocoon. This cocoon structure protects the pupae from the different environmental conditions, natural calamities, and predators ( for non-mulberry silkworms) stress. The removal of sericin from the silk fibres is carried out by the different processes called degumming. The sericins are mostly discarded as waste products during silk fibre processing in the textile industries, which find place in economics. Sericin recently finds widespread applications in cosmetic industry, as antioxidant and antiapoptotic compound, as support for enzyme immobilization, as supplement in animal cell culture media, as dietary supplement, and as biomaterial for cell culture, drug, and gene delivery [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Addition of 0.5% sericin to cell culture medium improved the resistance to oxidative stress and quality of bovine embryos in vitro [9]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion